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Merz Signs Cooperation Agreement with Grünenthal

Frankfurt am Main/Aachen, 20.01.2000

In January 2000, the Merz + Co. pharmaceutical group, Frankfurt am Main, signed a worldwide cooperation agreement with Grünenthal GmbH, Aachen, on registration, development and marketing of novel GlycinB antagonists in the indication pain. The aim of this cooperation is to successfully develop the products and to jointly distribute them in the European markets.

One of the core competencies of Merz + Co. in the pharmaceutical area is the central nervous system (CNS). The company has discovered and patented two new groups of substances (GlycinB antagonists and uncompetitive NMDA antagonists) for the treatment of serious CNS diseases. With this cooperation agreement Grünenthal as a leading specialist in the field of pain therapy, has obtained the worldwide and exclusive right to further investigate selected GlycinB antagonists presently in preclinical research, and to further develop them on an international level for all types of pain.

“Grünenthal is the first of several potential partners for the development of our new and highly potent substances for the treatment of serious neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s, depression, stroke and other still unsatisfactorly treatable diseases,” said Prof. Dr. Hans Erbler, Member of the Board of Directors, who is in charge of the Merz pharmaceutical business.

Independent of its Grünenthal cooperation, Merz + Co. will continue its own R & D with the GlycinB antagonists in attractive indication fields other than pain. The main focus will be on stroke and further neuroischemic diseases.

The Frankfurt-based Merz group with expected sales of DM 550 million in the current business year (1999 sales: DM 470 million) has more and more specialized in the development and marketing of drugs acting on the CNS and metabolic disorders during the last decade. Merz’ uncompetitive NMDA antagonist Memantine is meanwhile the leading antidementia drug on the German market amongst the chemically defined drugs. It is the declared aim of Merz + Co. to further expand its market share in the CNS field through its new CNS compounds.

Grünenthal, a family-owned pharmaceutical company, generated sales of over DM 1.2 billion the last year. The most important strategic business units are “pain” and “infections”. In the “pain” area R & D activities have been extended to become economically competitive on an international level. For this purpose, a compre-hensive cooperation network with partner companies and research institutes has been established. Grünenthal’s painkiller Tramadol has gained worldwide market leadership in the segment of CNS-active analgesics. Grünenthal operates subsidiaries in many European and Latin American countries and is engaged in manifold pharmaceutical activities in other parts of the world.

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